Jason Valendy Jason Valendy

Stop seeking balance

Recently it was shared with a group I was in facilitated by Rev. Ed George that Christians should not seek balance in their lives. Seeking balance will only get you sea sick.

Rather than seeking balance, Christians are called to seek centered-ness in Christ.

Not a bad thought.

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Jason Valendy Jason Valendy

What if being a disciple was actually to be a di(e)ciple

I found myself in a very interesting conversation the other day about what it means to be a disciple. It sounds like a silly question, but what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? 

The odds are that everyone who is in a worship service on a Sunday thinks that they are a disciple of Jesus. No Christian thinks they are wrong when it comes to understanding Jesus, but lets face it: everyone in Jesus' day was wrong about what it meant to be a disciple and I am not convinced that we have made much headway on having a better understanding.

There are a great number of conversations about having a clear discipleship pathway for church members. The underlying assumption is that we all know what a disciple looks like. But do we really? 

For most of us, being a disciple is having a combination of some of the following qualities:

  • Nice, pleasant, non-confrontational, cordial 
  • Does some sort of service, but not necessarily very demanding on the person 
  • Involved in a small group or Bible study
  • Attends worship regularly 
  • Gives money to the church
  • Refrains from doing "really bad things" 

The list can go on, but the point being that discipleship is generally seen as a number of actions that a person does that enhance/better their lives. And so being a Christian is primarily about being happy and doing good. 

I would like to submit that this way of understanding discipleship actually leads us to a place where Christianity is nothing more than painting a crumbling house. It looks nice and it masks the structural flaws, but the structure is still in disarray.

Rather, I would like to submit that discipleship is not about living your best life now or having everything roses and peaches in your life. It is not about joining a group of people to learn how to be better people or do nice things for others.

Following Jesus, being a disciple, is about dying. It is about dying to yourself. Thus, I submit we consider becoming Di(e)ciples.

Not sure when I will post more about Di(e)cipleship, but I hope more will come and perhaps a book thesis.

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Jason Valendy Jason Valendy

The Bible may not be "factual" - don't freak out

I have heard it described to me that there is a group of Christians who read the Bible as factual. Meaning that the truth of the Bible is located in the factual historicity of the event(s) the Bible speaks of. 

Reading the Bible factually is problematic for a number of reasons, but to name a few:

  • We have yet to "prove" the existence of a number of historical events storied in the Bible (such as the liberation of Israelites in ancient Egypt)
  • Science tells us that the laws of nature cannot be broken in many of the ways the Bible tells us (such as the sun stopping or walls being toppled by sound)
  • We spend a silly amount of time trying to prove the historicity of an event (such as those who search for Noah's arc).
  • Large numbers of people abandon the faith because there are "facts" in the Bible that are just nonsensical from a scientific stand point and people will no longer tolerate "it is a miracle" reasoning.

As one who does not read the Bible for facts, I would share what I have heard in various places - The Bible is actual not factual.

That is to say the Bible is actually true and not limited to factually true.

It is a shame that we have reduced the scriptures and the story of the people of God down to rooting it in a historical event. As if something is only true if it was a historical event. If this were the case then no one would get any wisdom or Truth from non-fiction. Yet ask any book club, non-fiction can be more than true. 

For me, the Bible is to be read as actual Truth not factual truth. The Bible is to be actually realized and not historically limited. The Bible is more than True and it has and continues to change lives and the world. 

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